Zinc, an important nutrient for your immunity and health

For some strange reason, zinc problems have come up to my attention this last week, and there seems to be a lot of confusion about it and some other minerals  associated with zinc.

Zinc is a very necessary nutritional mineral. It is a vital component used in fighting infections and wounds.  It is also heavily involved with the reproductive system, particularly for men.  It's involved with the sensory systems of taste and smell.  

There are several mineral tests used to measure nutritional and toxic minerals.  A blood test measures what is in the blood at the time of drawing the blood.  A urine test (best if taken over 24 hours or so) will show up what is in the bloodstream over that period, and what is being "discarded". I used hair analysis, and that measures  minerals over months or weeks, depending  on the length of the hair used. Any of these tests will show up a zinc deficiency.
 
There's also a simple test that works well for lay persons.  Simply take a good look at your fingernails and toenails.  (Women have a hard time with this because their fingernails and sometimes toenails are covered with paint, so any white spots are not seen.

Any white spot shows a zinc deficiency at some prior time.  Sometimes a horizontal white line may show up that shows serious deficiency and might mark a disease, or a wound, or something else like a severe menstrual period or excessive sex in men. 

I once saw a woman who had "zebra" horizontal stripes delineating every menstrual period for several months.  That showed a severe zinc deficiency, Zinc supplements quickly cleared u several problems it had caused.
 
A man loses a day's worth of zinc with each ejaculation or orgasm.  This alone can cause impotency in some. 

I once gave a talk that mentioned this to a Ladies Club, and the local health food store ran out of zinc the next day.

At the start of the menstrual period in women, their blood goes high in copper and lower in zinc.  This ratio of copper to zinc is part of the PMS syndrome.  If this ratio is severe, it can cause schizophrenia, or depression. 

(Since every woman goes high in copper and low in zinc at the menstrual period, does this mean they are a "little bit" crazy?)  Just kidding, but it is a possibility and does contribute to PMS at least. 

There's yet another factor to consider here.  There is a genetic factor in one family known as the Wilson Syndrome.  This causes the uptake of copper to be many times normal, and this can cause real schizophrenia.  Too many MD's don't know this, and may misdiagnose it and mistreat it.  (I use ascorbic acid vitamin C to help lower the copper/zinc ratio, and I've had good results with several schizophrenics.)  

Vitamin B6 is the vitamin that helps to absorb zinc better, and large amounts of it (along with the rest of the B complex) usually solves all PMS problems.  See my web page on PMS for more info on that).   

A loss of taste and/or smell can also signal zinc deficiency. Generally, the white spots are a much better indicator.  But, again individuality is also a factor.  Remember that you are similar in billions of ways to all humans, but you are different in hundreds or thousands, so that makes you different from every other person, even a twin. 

Iron is also related to zinc and copper, and a deficiency in iron causes anemia, relatively rare today so not nearly as important for general health.  A zinc deficiency can sometimes imitate an iron deficiency anemia in symptoms.  If you seem to have chronic iron anemia, check your fingernails, or even better, get a good mineral analysis. 

created and ©  by my colleague and friend, orthomolecular pioneer Phil Bate, PhD.

Natural Healing through Natural Health has 20+ pages throughout our website with information about zinc. Search leaflady.org.